That may be true for when you don't have to respond to emails. But my experience has not been the case for when I am responding to emails or for when I begin drafting an email and then realize the need the need to attach something.

It is a tedious problem in that scenario. I admit to irritation when I launch Mail, and intend to attach a photo and then realise I must switch to the Photos app. At least there's copy and paste (for images to an email or for text to Photos mail).

However, Apple is trying to prevent the need for a filesystem to be exposed to users. It doesn't have to while making this functionality available. As with the Open In menu used to transfer a file (copy, really) from one place to another within iOS, and the File Transfer pane in iTunes for moving files in and out of particular app's storage areas, Apple could offer an attachment button that brought up a list of apps instead of a filesystem. But so far that hasn't reached a point that annoys people enough to stop purchasing the kit, I imagine.

The name thing was weird, almost everybody said that. Why let obvious logical (‘iPad 3′) or trendy (‘iPad HD’) choices slide by?! That had me wondering too, but this morning it hit me when I thought what it reminded me of: the iPod.
There was only ever the ‘iPod’, the succeeding versions were just numbered generations. Why is that? Well, it’s obviously because there are different variants of the device like ‘nano’, ‘touch’, ‘shuffle’. The moniker ‘iPod’ is just tying them together as a category, with each device developing in different evolutions.
So that’s what we have here, folks: the iPad is now a category, and what was introduced this week will eventually be known as the iPad ‘classic’ – when the other variants come out. Come on, it’s obvious when you think about it: there are already rumors of of a 7.8 inch version (welcome ‘iPad mini’?).

Steve Jobs has proved that Board of Directors is a curse for an innovative Company. Apple, a non-oil Company, simply could not have become number one by market capitalization but for Jobs. He lived to see that day. All the same, people still remember Jobs as a jerk.

Nice piece. My view is that with such a high-resolution device in the hands of mainstream users, we are indeed - as Apple claims - entering a "post-PC world". The sales figures rolled out by Tim Cook make it clear; the world has changed, and competitors like Google and Microsoft ( for whom I worked for 14 years ) will struggle to keep up.
For decades, humans have had to adapt to computers. Apple has figured it out, and adapted computers for humans instead.
I've written about this, and the significance of breaking the resolution barrier, in my latest blog post: http://billhillsblog.blogspot.com

1. Apple releases a new mobile product.
2. Pundits and Android fanciers run around saying how it is overpriced, behind the curve, and will be totally destroyed by forthcoming hardware and improved release of the Android OS. (For extra credit, compare it unfavorably to an existing mobile product that either either simply not selling, or on which the margins are so thin that the manufacturer is apparently selling at a loss and hoping to make it up on volume.)
3. Apple blows through every estimate of how many of these products they are going to sell.
4. Pundits and Android fanciers blame it all on marketing, because, as we know, Apple is the only company in the mobile computing industry that does marketing.
5. Repeat on next Apple product announcement.

Really, this has gotten beyond silly. Apple makes money because they sell products that people want, and like, and buy. Why is this idea so hard to accept?

To your end question: Probably, because Apple always made products people wanted to buy, however, until 2007 not many did. And, of course, because so many in business and media worked on mind boggling clunky blue screen of death PCs networked poorly and loaded with crappy software, unless they had their own Mac at home. One should never expect business nor media to be ahead of the curve or even terribly intuitive when looking in its rear view mirror.

1. Apple releases a new mobile product.
2. Pundits and Android fanciers run around saying how it is overpriced, behind the curve, and will be totally destroyed by forthcoming hardware and improved release of the Android OS. (For extra credit, compare it unfavorably to an existing mobile product that either either simply not selling, or on which the margins are so thin that the manufacturer is apparently selling at a loss and hoping to make it up on volume.)
3. Apple blows through every estimate of how many of these products they are going to sell.
4. Pundits and Android fanciers blame it all on marketing, because, as we know, Apple is the only company in the mobile computing industry that does marketing.
5. Repeat on next Apple product announcement.

Really, this has gotten beyond silly. Apple makes money because they sell products that people want, and like, and buy. Why is this idea so hard to accept?

Can we read a bit into the naming of the device? Just "iPad". Does it have a ring of finality to it? Is there an implication that Apple is moving on to something else (TV) or that they have produced a device so far ahead of competitors in hardware that it will need no more than software updates for the near future? It seems too early into the tablet crazy to suggest anything else more outrageous...

I don't think there's anything to read into. Now the iPhone is the only (current) Apple product that has a number in the name. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped that with the next model either. Maybe they just felt it was getting cumbersome to tack an ever increasing number on the end of the name.

Yes, I suppose it couldn't go on forever. Good point!
What you said could mean this though: When the next iPad is released - the iPad 4... you can't call it iPad as that would be confused with iPad 3 and you can't call it iPad 2 as one already exists.... maybe Apple will being to only sell the current model of their product...

They don't sell the original iPad so they seem to have thought about branding and decided to take back the original name. This means they can do what they want with the name in the future instead of committing to iPad 3, iPad HD, etc.

I don't understand the hate for Apple products and the discussions that comes with it. People choose to buy those products, if you don't like the product, why bother?

For me those products are expensive, but at the same time they have a innovative design, very user-friendly working system and less issue's with their products. That's my experience and I don't care they come up every year with a big or minor update, as long as the product its worth the money.

Apple aren't just trying to compete with their product - they're also using unmerited patents to try to block the open source alternative in a large array of court cases. They are now trying to blackmail manufacturers of Android products into paying a licence fee of $5-$15 per device sold. A simple economic analysis indicates that patent trolls shouldn't be paid: if you pay a toll to a troll, the consequence will be more trolls demanding tolls.

Unmerited patents? If they own it, through whatever means, they have the right to ask for payment if others use it. A lot of money gets invested in developing patents and their owners do have a right to recoup some of it. I don't see it as blackmail, but as an infringement by Android users on Apple's intellectual property. Why do they attempt to use technology that they don't own in the first place? It is cheaper than to develop their own, but if everybody did that no one would invent anything, they would just steal or 'borrow' from each other.

Android is a product of Google, not of a startup.
Google wanted to enter the post pc age in a hurry as the market was changing fast. (No Pc no google. Siri takes over.)
They just Grabbed every intellectual property which they needed and let lose their minions to shout that intellectual property is not to be patented.
Will Google let go of their patents and make all their intellectual property public.
Google is evil that it stalks every one's life to make money, not people who have spent years and lot of money in developing new ideas.
Apple does not collect any private information to sell. Rather they make a product which you had never thought of, but now essential. Innovation versus theft.

I don't understand the hate for Apple products and the discussions that comes with it. People choose to buy those products, if you don't like the product, why bother?

For me those products are expensive, but at the same time they have a innovative design, very user-friendly working system and less issue's with their products. That's my experience and I don't care they come up every year with a big or minor update, as long as the product its worth the money.

I don't understand the hate for Apple products and the discussions that comes with it. People choose to buy those products, if you don't like the product, why bother?

For me those products are expensive, but at the same time they have a innovative design, very user-friendly working system and less issue's with their products. That's my experience and I don't care they come up every year with a big or minor update, as long as the product its worth the money.

Anyone know a betting website that's offering odds on which day Apple will release a pre-scripted announcement that pre-orders were higher than expected, and there will thus be a waiting list to obtain one? (roll eyes)

If anyone is wondering whether they might like a tablet computer, a good idea is to buy a 7" model with 3 hour battery life for around £50. It won't be as good as an Asus Infinity or an Acer Iconia - both of which have have 1920x1200 displays (a little less than the new iPad's 2048x1536 - 6% in one dimension and 22% in the other) - but it will let you find out how much you would actually use it without wasting money - and also what features you will actually value.

If you are a shallow status driven person, though, you NEED to place your order right now - what are you waiting for?

Does an iPad confer a status upon you? How?!? Status only works if the device is genuinely rare and hard to come by. With the iPad, every Tom, Dick and Harriet has one these days (hence the huge sales figures, you know).

Same with iPhones - if I look around on the commuter train in the morning, about three quarters of the phones being used by travellers at any given time are iPhones.

Usually status (and rarity) are achieved by the device being prohibitively expensive, which the iPad clearly is not (see the huge sales figures again) - just 25 % more that an Acer Iconia, from what I can see on the web.

There is an element of managers wanting iPads, for reasons I largely believe because of their perception of coolness.

My sense is if iPads make inroads into corporations, it will be for simple field work (i.e., sales) and management (the while line on up) desiring them for the sake of having them to show off (and possibly use more conveniently while on business travel). Then there would be specialty reasons that one sees cropping up in books on iPad and the enterprise.

In my company the executive managers are given iPads for the purposes of checking emails on the road, in airports, at home, etc. But they really have just become a perpetual source of distraction in meetings.

You clearly do not understand why people buy iPad. If you have ever closely observed best Android tablets and iPad you can see how easy to use iPad really is. And also iPad has backing of the very strong personality of Steve Jobs, which Android and Win8 clearly lack!

People rarely care about features. No one even knows how many pixels are there on a tablets screen. People care if the image they are seeing is smooth or not. So you can keep the pixel count to yourself, and the math you have done is useless!

Michael, you are right about the managers. Since many more conservative IT departments do not want the hassle of switching from RIM to Apple , the rarity thing still works in the business environment, providing status (Nevermind that IT is usually still eager to order some iPads on company dime for "evaluation and testing"). It makes it look like you are working for a "cool" firm because, well, everybody else uses Blackberry.

Is it really just the 'perception' of coolness though? To me at least, the coolness is real. And not because it is something to show off - I could not care less about what other people think about me using Apple devices. My iphone has a black silicone sleeve that makes it indistinguishable from other similarly shaped phones.

I just think they look great, they can be used intuitively right out of the box, they are high quality and reliable and the are fun. The latter is probably not a seperate criterion but rather a result of the former, but again I do not normally dwell on that, I just enjoy.

I guess it is more than a perception of coolness. Actually my observation about management desiring these devices comes from interactions with a variety of decidely uncool firms in different industries. Not just medical device and high tech firms, but other kinds of manufacturers and service providers.

One thing that crops up is browser support for their intranets - Seems many may have dawdles on updating custom/legacy components, so the safari browser proves troublesome to the eager manager on the rise trying to check on key, internal apps/reports.

This comment encapsulates why I think iPads (and good imitators) will prove important for field sales with tasks oflight data intensity:

"I just think they look great, they can be used intuitively right out of the box, they are high quality and reliable and the are fun. The latter is probably not a seperate criterion but rather a result of the former, but again I do not normally dwell on that, I just enjoy."

Finally something that can help sales management get around the field luddite mentality; as well as enable them to record all those things they hate while on the go.....

And in some firms field sales can approach 5 to 10% of a firms labor force. And often what sales wants, sales gets and IT has to respond, or there is budget elsewhere (one reason Siebel and later Salesforce.com took off).

iPad is a gadget. Expected Windows 8 pads will aim more the professionals. Apple gadgets shouldn't really be compared with systems - Microsoft is aiming at fully integrated systems [from PCs to notebooks, pads / slates and phones, cloud access]. Different market segments ahead. No doubt, a good number of gadget enthusiasts will turn to Windows products. Apple will have its share of the market, MS will have its. Things might get interesting if Apple decided to transfer a version of its PC OS on to its gadgets.

I agree, I do like the iPad 3, but I can see tons of people wanting to buy a value, ultra tweakable Windows 8 slab. Like many "toys" before tablets, people buy a car, a bicycle, a motorcycle, a skateboard, and so on and tweak them day and night, and compare their tweaking to others. Making it quite a social experience. And frankly, did it matter if they actually ever drove their car for a race, rode their bike from Paris to Marseilles or from wherever Ewan McGregor went fromt and to. What if the "tweaking" is the fun :) -- One may say that's waste of time, what purpose does it serve. Well, in that case, the gaming industry should close down, too. I mean, what does a person *really* gain from playing a game? Absolutely nothing. Who knows. Whatever people like to do, there may just be a business there. One shouldn't argue the matter of taste, right?

Tweaking still exists - but Apple would rather its users tweak code than plastic.

At the end of the day, when we're all equipped with high-end physical technology, it's innovations in software, not hardware, that have the greatest impact of all, due precisely to the "social experience," as you call it.

Seriously? Plenty of professionals already use iPads for professional things (Doctors looking at x-rays, pilots looking at flight maps, etc.). Just because it's Microsoft doesn't make it suddenly "more professional", that's the old PC world and THAT was only because Windows had more software available at the time, not because it was a better operating system (Apple DOS was better than MS-DOS, UNIX was better than both and now OSX is based on it, etc.).

Windows8 is Microsoft's usual attempt to cram everything and the kitchen sink onto an operating system which, as usual, will end up bloated, buggy and virus prone. While Metro is a nice slick user interface for a phone or tablet it sucks for PCs and the poorly tacked on older Windows interface sucks on tablets and phones, it'll end up looking and behaving like Frankenstein's monster.

we really don't need to drink coca cola, either. -- and if a pair of 15 dollar jeans work, who needs to buy a pair of $800 designer ones. -- cellphones are great, but what are the contents of most conversations anyways? are they that necessary? -- watching movies doesn't help you produce a meal, either. so I guess most things that don't have direct effect on survival are quite superfluous.
that there was someone decided to make something call a croissant out of butter, water, flour, and yeast in 52+ thin layers so delicate that it fails half the times already tells you that what is necessary or not is really not a simple question

My own experience tells me that I only started to like working on my computer when I got my iMac. I hated my Nokia smartphone and could only use it as a phone. The instruction booklet was numerous pages long and to find a particular action was nearly impossible. Now it rests in a drawer and my iPhone 4S makes me use all its functions without a single instruction book.

I have held off getting an iPad until now. The new one looks desirable and will find countless uses when not at my desktop.

As to the “walled garden”, I fail to see that as a problem. Many businesses and educators seem to agree with me as they are able to develop their own applications when no standard apps are available.

Windows 8 is not available and has to prove itself in the market when eventually it arrives. Android has its own problems with multiple versions that are incompatible.

Finally, phone distribution is usually tied to providers who sell their connections with subsidies to their customers. iPads are sold trough retail channels and other tablets are at a distinct disadvantage when compared to Apple with its very successful retail presence.

Hate of the one or the other seems a complete waste of time as people and organisations are free to spend their money which ever way they like.

Hey Charel,
Well there are several reasons that make seemingly reasonable people take a jab at Apple. Firstly, Apple's got blood on their hands. I am talking about how all the manufacturing and assembling of its products are outsourced to companies in China and how the pathetic working conditions there have had several workers jumping off their dorms to their death.
Secondly, you would have realised by now how Apple roles out a 'upgraded' version of it's previous product with so much hype that people would want to ditch their perfectly working 'old' models to buy the exorbitantly priced new ones. It is a gimmick which many people find it distasteful.
Thirdly, we come to its OS, unlike Android which is an open source doesnt allow users to modify the functionality to suit their needs. The control which Apple exerts on how people should use their products can get overwhelming.
Hope this clears things up.

I must add that I am not favoring one device maker over another. I must point out that, Apple has been forced to come out with a list of contractors after a spate of suicides and explosions at its assemply plants in China triggered a series of protests against it. Also, could you give a solid example on how Apple is making efforts for its employees? Last time I read reports from undercover journalists, things were still bad.
Apple is actually being made an example of here for other device manufacturers to make note.
Also when I talked about Android, I was specifying the open architecture based OS and how it is different to iOS. I wasn't talking in favour of android supporting device manufacturers. For all I know, they might be as bad in treating their employees as Apple but making Apple look bad might empower other workers to come out in protest against their own companies too..maybe...hopefully.

I have an Ipad2. At some point. You realise you don't really need a tablet computer. Anything you need a tablet for, can be done on a smart phone, and for anything beyond that the desktop computer is far more comfortable.

I once had an internship in a market analysis department that involved reading tons of pdf documents every day. While I pity all the people who ride the metro harvesting their smurf gardens on their iPads, I realized then for the first time that a tablet does indeed offer some useful advantages. But, actually, it's the only situation in which I think you might actually gain from posessing a tablet pc - reading tons of pdf files with charts and tables where the smartphone's screen is to small and the subnotebook is too heavy. Everything else can indeed be done on a smartphone or a computer more efficiently, I agree.

Now, now RazorX. "Apple has blood on their hands" is a strong statement that cannot be substantiated. Unless you believe that the 12 suicides at Foxconn are Apple’s fault and all the other corporate accidents and deaths are mere statistics.

Your statement that “all the manufacturing and assembling” takes place in China is simply an easy evasion. Most of the manufacturing and design takes place elsewhere whilst the assembling takes place in China and now in Brazil as well.

As to the hype, it is not Apple, but you and the media who are responsible. My old, perfectly serviceable iMac and iPod lead a very productive second life with my less fortunate relatives who scoff at my Nokia.

IOS and OSX allow virtually any functionality a user could imagine through applications of a diverse number of designers and suppliers. Apple’s control through their App stores only serves to protect the innocents from harm. OSX does not prevent you from installing anything on your computer although the system seems very good at preventing viruses to harm you.

If, on the other hand you must tinker with your purchase, feel free to go Microsoft or Android. Believe me, nobody will hate you for it.

Android is a product of Google, not of a startup.
Google wanted to enter the post pc age in a hurry as the market was changing fast. (No Pc no google. Siri takes over.)
They just Grabbed every intellectual property which they needed and let lose their minions to shout that intellectual property is not to be patented.
Will Google let go of their patents and make all their intellectual property public.
Google is evil that it stalks every one's life to make money, not people who have spent years and lot of money in developing new ideas.
Apple does not collect any private information to sell. Rather they make a product which you had never thought of, but now essential. Innovation versus theft.

Alright, let me just clear things up one by one.
'Apple's got blood on its hands' - This was the headline from one of the world's leading newspaper. It was hardly my creation. Agreed that the employees who have committed suicide were Foxconn's employees. But don't you think one (Apple) should know where and how its products are being assembled? Don't you think there is a reason why Apple has been reluctant to make public its list of contractors for the assembly of its products? For the simple reason, its going to cost them money! Apple has always know the inhuman conditions that exist in the assembly plants. But, it hasn't taken action. Why? The contractors are willing to do the work at such a low price that the tempt of profits had their hands tied behind their backs. On an ending note , if the suicides at Foxconn weren't Apples fault, whose products were these workers exactly working on?
Also, when I talk about the OS , believe me I wasn't talking about apps. I was specifying on the core operating system architecture. It is fine if you do not wan't to make changes in the OS to suit your needs. You can go ahead pay an exorbitant price and get a mac which neither allows you to use full potential of your hardware nor make any changes in the software. But hey, I need my moneys worth.

Even “leading newspapers” can go over the top. It would also help to know, that the suicide rate for China is way higher than 12 out of the hundreds of thousand Foxconn employees.

Apple certainly knows where and how its products are made. You only have to read their audit report to get their side of the story. I imagine they were reluctant to publish full details of their supply chain for competitive reasons.

If conditions at the plants were inhuman and employees were underpaid, I wonder why any demand for more workers would result in thousands turning up at the gates.

Foxconn assembles products for all the major electronic brands at their Chinese plants, which is well known, but generally ignored by those criticising Apple.

If you want to tinker with your operating system, feel free to choose something other than OSX or iOS.

As to the exorbitant price of Apple products, you are wrong. None of their competitors are able to match Apple’s price especially when you take into account the cost of use over time. But, “hey”, it is your money.

And that's why the reviewers completely missed the boat on Samsung's 5.3 Note which is selling brilliantly well (I'm a user) as a phone/tablet hybrid. It spans a spectrum of needs that have been unmet by wi fi tablets and small screen phones. It's going to keep surprising the markets, just watch.

Android is a product of Google, not of a startup.
Google wanted to enter the post pc age in a hurry as the market was changing fast. (No Pc no google. Siri takes over.)
They just Grabbed every intellectual property which they needed and let lose their minions to shout that intellectual property is not to be patented.
Will Google let go of their patents and make all their intellectual property public.
Google is evil that it stalks every one's life to make money, not people who have spent years and lot of money in developing new ideas.
Apple does not collect any private information to sell. Rather they make a product which you had never thought of, but now essential. Innovation versus theft.

Seems that some of my questions targeted at you have been conveniently side stepped. Nevertheless this is what I have to say:
Have you ever seen what the inside of a Foxconn facility is like? Do you know that there are nets hung to avoid labourers from jumping off their dormitories? I don't see the necessity to compare suicide rates. You are not understanding the core point I am trying to make, which is that people are being compelled to commit suicide. One needs to understand why. Even if there is one life lost or a dozen, its still disturbing to get to know what must have driven them to do something this extreme. Mind you the number 12, is said to be the offical toll , who knows what the unofficial count is? Why are we bothering about statistics here when we KNOW people are dying and which can be explained by a direct causal effect?

Yes, Apple certainly knows where its products are made. They just din't bother/care to better the working conditions.

Most of the people turning up at the gates of these facilities are from rural areas lured by dreams of better pay and hopefully a better life. They definitely make better money than what they made tending to their fields, but at what cost? Made to work in hazardous conditions, overtime for extended periods, treated badly, the list is unending.

Yes Foxconn assembles products for all major electronic brands. The problem with Apple you might ask. Being a reputed firm Apple must be setting standards for other firms. But here we have it engaging in all the dirty tricks in cost cutting known in the capitalist world. The reason everyone targets Apple is that, its hard for them to imagine Apple to engage in such activities. Obviously they would be enraged when people worship such a firm without knowing where their products come from and at what cost.

You speak of tinkering as it is a bad term. End of the day, software and hardware are inanimate quantities and nothings being violated here. Why should not one expect more from their OS? Why should one not maximise the worth of what they are putting their money it?

None of the competitors come up with an upgrade every one year and market it in such a way that make people ditch their older products and purchase the newer ones.

If I have sidestepped your questions I am sorry.
No, I have not seen the inside of the Foxconn factories in person. I presume that you have.
The nets are hung on the dormitories for a purpose. They are there to prevent people from jumping off. At thee same time Foxconn have changed their policy to compensate people’s next of kin when someone commits suicide. The rate of suicides at Foxconn, as reported, is very much lower than in China as a whole. It is also much lower than in the US and among college students in the US.
Your core point, that chinese Foxconn workers are being compelled to commit suicide, needs more than you stating it. It is my understanding that the commission of suicide cannot be pinned on working conditions alone. If that were the cause, many more would jump. Far fewer new workers would clamour for a job paying double the rate they can earn elsewhere. The causal effect you speak of is your opinion alone and without proof cannot be taken seriously.
Apple does care about working conditions at their suppliers’ plants. They publish annual reports on those conditions. At the same time they cannot be held responsible for every thing that is different in a foreign country.
You claim that there is a cost that foreigners are to be held responsible for when Chinese workers want to work at Foxconn assembling Apple and other’s electronic gadgets. Can you really know what motivates Chinese workers taking those jobs? They apparently demand the overtime to make as much money in as short a time to take back to their families. They are actually not pleased when Apple’s demands limits the overtime they can work. Saturday work is especially prised as it pays double rates.
You seem to have fallen for the fraudulent claims of a theatre show, used as fact by many media outlets, now debunked.
As to the tinkering, why would you put money into an operating system you expect more from. Design you own or use any alternative you fancy. Apple’s Macs allow you to install various alternatives on their machines. iOS is closed although you can “jailbreak” it.
The iOS updates are free and the OSX updates are very moderately priced at $ 29. And if you find that to be too much, nothing prevents you from continuing to use what you already have.
People are supposed to be thinking beings, able to make their own decisions. They do not have to ditch their older products if they decide not to, irrespective of the clever marketing.
I hope this answers your questions to your satisfaction.

I would disagree about the "lasting creation" part. My iPhone was decaying. Literally, decaying. I was quite tender with it and yet, the dynamic stopped working (and it was practically new), then i started having troubles with receiving calls, then my volume broke. I really can't call this lasting. My first phone, Nokia 2100 still works and does not have a single problem. My iPhone broke. Plus the iOS is not that easy customize. You can't do it. It looks as if it was meant for an average user who is not very good with technology but likes everything to look pretty.
After my incident I started asking every person I saw with an Apple product (even if I did not know them) about it. And I'd say that most people were experiencing severe problems after a while.

When I was lining up to get my new iPhone 4, three people with iPhone 3G brought it to the Apple store to fix something with it, after a two minute check, the customer service rep handed them new iPhone 4(s).

Another story, for my student rebate of the mac (an offer apple made to students), I lost a paper (that had no less than the item barcode and essential information) that I had to mail to apple to get money back; so I called Apple (where my airtime ran out waiting for them to pick up) so guess what? They called me back, and they told me to write down a code number and mail it instead. My money got transferred in no time.

Such gestures create customer loyalty, my Nokia N70 switched off while I was talking, when I took it to the dealer they told me "your CPU got burnt and it costs 100$ to replace it" My phone's value was less than that, so I thought never again!

No doubt about it, but more people are waking up to Apple's foibles. There will always be the faithful Apple fanboys and girls though standing by to be the first adopters and add to Apple's considerable coffers while exaggerating its every feature and forgiving its every insipid "upgrade".

I have to agree. I haven't seen a need/want to buy the iPad until now. Before, it was an oversized smartphone with no phone feature. Now it has better graphics than my PS3 and my HD laptop, it can be my digital camera (good bye compact camera and SLR), it can be a camcorder I would never actually want to buy but now I get for free, and it can be my hotspot.
When Tim Cook says it's amazing, it is not hyperbole.

Not really. Although Tim Cook shamelessly announced the new iPad as a "quad-core" tablet, it has a dual-core CPU and a quad-core GPU. Typical Apple marketing trick for the iSheep. The new Tegra 3 chips that will appear in a plethora of Android tablets this year have quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU.

And what's with the 0.3 MP front camera? This is the one we actually use (when skyping, etc.) and most other tablets have moved on to 2 MP front cameras already.

The retina display is sweet for sure, but otherwise it'll still be one step behind the tablets from Samsung and Asus coming out this year.

If it did Samsung and Asus would be the market leaders. You guys that focus on specs don't get it. You can't understand why people would buy an inferior product. It only matters to a small percentage of techies and they get upset when no one listens to them. I think that is why those kind of people hate Apple.

In making the screen the best that is currently available they have leapfrogged over the others for now in the one area that you actually see. All the stuff on the inside is, for the most part, to be ignored.

Technology is always going to improve. If you wait for the best before buying then you will never buy because something better is always going to be available a few months later.

I didn't say that I was that type of consumer, I said that the mass market doesn't care.

You clearly do and you are free to buy whatever you want. I'm sorry that your new Samsung phone isn't getting you all the attention that you were hoping for but while it might be technically superior most people don't care. And while that might be frustrating to you I doubt you'll be able to change peoples minds.